How do we react when confronted with our privilege?
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I am a radical. I am not a terrorist. I am not an extremist.
I am, however, an enemy of the state. The state may not consider me an enemy but I surely consider myself one. Those who continue to play the game between left and right politics, often get angry with radicals for many reasons. The one reason that cuts to the bone is that radicals get to the root of the matter and the root of the matter is not where those on the left and the right like to go. Their game is to point out the evils of one another and avoiding the ugly truth they both share.
The word radical simply means to get to the root. The status quo has hijacked the word and its definition to mean something else entirely. Often terrorists or religious extremists are called radicals. For a nation-state to call anyone a terrorist, or an extremist, is a joke. A radical knows this and continues to search.
Over the course of the last two decades I have searched for the root of issues we collectively face. When confronted with my white privilege, I did not stop the search for the root. When confronted with my male privilege, I continued to look beyond it and where it stemmed from. When we attempt to find the root of the issues that our hierarchical, global, industrialized living arrangement creates, most folks instantly begin to negotiate their way towards solutions.
The predicament is that our living arrangement is not a problem-solver but rather a problem-creator. We therefore continue to dig ourselves into a deeper hole without ever considering the source or root of our so-called solutions. When one is born and raised into a particular narrative, what should we really expect other than making the same mistakes over and over? Unfortunately, despite the countless failures by our narrative to address anything other than the mess it creates (and it rarely even addresses that) we continue to go to the poisoned well, expecting a cure for our ills. We often spend our entire lives fighting for solutions without ever realizing the root from where they come.
Recently I was (briefly) part of a discussion on Facebook in which a very progressive, anti-racist activist was arguing his reasoning behind voting for Hilary Clinton over Donald Trump in the upcoming election. It was your pretty standard lesser-of-two-evils argument with examples and scenarios that compared what George W. Bush had done as president with what Al Gore might have done. The main point of the argument acknowledged that even though Hilary is severely flawed, Donald is a potential fascist and more likely to inflict harm upon those most vulnerable to not only U.S. military might, but to our domestic intolerance (hatred, bigotry, etc) as well. It’s a valid argument but it completely ignores the root of our upcoming presidential election predicament.
- The root is that the United States is a modern empire because that’s what the civilized model produces.
- The root is that in order to maintain empire–absolute imperial power–it is necessary to commit atrocities.
- The root is that, if we made a list comparing the atrocities of presidents from both parties, they would look very similar.
Sure we may have our own ideas and opinions about which atrocities are worse or more horrific, but at the end of the day it’s the office of the presidency with its inherent position of expanding and maintaining empire that runs the show; not the individual sitting in the seat. The person filling that particular seat doesn’t get there without selling their soul along the way. They don’t get there unless they meet a particular sociopathic criteria. The argument of what might have happened if so-and-so was elected is pointless and ego-driven. It’s an argument that supports the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. It’s an argument that satisfies the ego, in order to avoid finding the root, which often challenges our ego and dismantles our narrative.
The root here is that the actual scenario of deciding between the lesser of two evils plays out perfectly for us every four years. It keeps us feeling powerless and it keeps us in the game. It holds a system in place that is fueled by patriarchy and white supremacy.
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Are there differences in what presidents from particular parties have done or might do given the opportunity? Absolutely. What it takes to maintain the empire, however, remains the same. Certain groups of marginalized and oppressed people may benefit greatly in some cases from a particular party sitting in the White House; however, the marginalization, oppression, violence, exploitation, murder, degradation, and justification it takes to maintain such a nation-state is horrifying. A nation-state, by the way, that perpetuates, promotes and requires injustice so that it can provide us with occasional concessions, to keep us at arms length, happens to be the root of our predicament–a predicament we avoid like the plague.
Some will argue that it’s easy for a person of incredible privilege, such as myself, to say such things when the consequences of who wins the presidency may have little impact on my personal life. This is true. What’s also true is that it doesn’t matter if I’m saying it or if anyone else is saying it when it comes down to the fact that we are not addressing the root and therefore perpetuating the very injustices we claim to be fighting. In other words, we are creating that which we claim to be fighting.
Others will argue that the question remains: Will Trump be more evil than Clinton?
Right now based on rhetoric, I would say that he would be. However, I never thought Obama would have called for so many more drone strikes than Bush. Maybe if we would have revolted after the 2000 Presidential shakedown, none of the drone strikes would have occurred? That’s the trap. We keep playing imaginary scenarios. The root here is that the actual scenario of deciding between the lesser of two evils plays out perfectly for us every four years. It keeps us feeling powerless and it keeps us in the game. It holds a system in place that is fueled by patriarchy and white supremacy. We remain complicit by perpetuating a narrative that requires massive injustice on every level.
I can also play the game of what might happen if a Trump becomes Commander-In-Chief. Maybe a fascist will finally create an atmosphere where the comfortable and privileged feel discomfort and fear? Trump may push the U.S. populous to a tipping point. Maybe that’s what it would take to resist such lunacy that we mistakenly call democracy? Fortunately I don’t play such games and remain steadfast in my search for the root by rejecting all comparisons of who was the least evil emperor to rule our lives or who will be the lesser of two evils over the next 4-8 years. That kind of thinking keeps our eyes off the ultimate prize; the truth of the situation we are in. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong, isn’t there? Now more than ever it is time to become radicalized and pursue the root … even if it means we must unravel our core beliefs in the process. Because in the end it’s never really been just about us, has it?
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I found the root of my privilege. Guilty as charged. it was that day at the wall, then Arlington, and across the pond to Flanders field and Verdun, where my fellow privileged lie voiceless so to allow so many the right to besmirch and degrade them for their sacrifice, creating frivolous and meaningless words so as to entitle themselves as superior to all else and pontificate as to the evils of the world with little to no solution beyond pie in the sky imaginings. Phew, glad I was enlightened. The only thing I’m grappling with is how my black brothers… Read more »
The root is not sarcasm but instead the narrative of hero worshipping by default. Dying for a cause that’s determined by the powerful is not noble but tragic. White systemic supremacy infects all raised in a culture that sits on its foundation…regardless of pigmentation. #EnlightenmentIsAPredicament